Modern ink jet printers may produce photographic-quality images. An inkjet printer includes a number of orifices or nozzles spatially positioned in a printer cartridge. Ink is heated when an electrical pulse energizes a resistive element forming a thermal resistor. The ink resting above the thermal resistor is ejected through the orifice towards a printing medium, such as an underlying sheet of paper as a result of the applied electrical pulse.
The thermal resistor is typically formed as a thin film resistive material on a semiconductor substrate as part of a semiconductor chip, for example. Several thin film layers may be formed on the semiconductor chip, including a dielectric layer carried by the substrate, a resistive layer forming the thermal resistor, and an electrode layer that defines electrodes coupled to the resistive layer to which the pulse is applied to heat the thermal resistor and vaporize the ink.
An orifice plate is typically placed onto the print head die stack or the layers described above, for example, by a pick-and-place technique. The orifice plate is typically a metallic or a polymeric material. These materials may be particularly costly, and may have special equipment requirements and limitations with respect to thickness, and thus to inkjet chamber and inkjet orifice dimensions. By using a metallic or polymeric orifice plate, increased consideration may be given to the effects of different of thermal expansion (CTEs) since the substrate and the orifice plate are different materials.